


Sticks and Stones

by AgreementTale



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Face Slapping, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Scientist W. D. Gaster, Young Sans (Undertale)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-02
Updated: 2019-04-09
Packaged: 2019-12-30 21:27:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,677
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18322310
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AgreementTale/pseuds/AgreementTale
Summary: Little piece of interaction between subject Sans and Dr. Gaster, talking things through after an experiment, violence not explicit, but openly referred.





	1. May Break My Bones

**Author's Note:**

> Welp, this is my first fic, made after a couple of sleepless nights with the help of Google Translator.  
> Undertale belongs to Toby Fox, I'm just a fan that had to get that scene out of my head.  
> Enjoy.

‘After the session it was necessary the restraint of the arms, subject was more active than expected for the earlier activity, a response to the negative stimuli? which one?’ A pair of summoned hands held and wrote the book he called ‘blue book’, the one that he used to record the new experiments and posterior results.

Another pair did the same on the so called ‘green book’, describing in detail all the damage sustained by the small figure seated in front of him, A third pair wrote in the ‘yellow book’. Boredom filling the scientist distorted voice, a sound only another skeleton could understand.

“And why did you injury your arm?” He signed to the patched up arms extended on the table, the left one lay moderately healed, but still broken, the right one littered with nasty bites marks, both firmly strapped to the table by leather restraints.

“I was trying to focus” Answered the younger in the common speech, a poor choice. Windings translated perfectly to Hands, and that was a way superior form of communication, but to each their own...

“This is a terrible coping method” Stated the obvious, the younger glared, but kept his magic in check, he was behaving, he would give him that.

“You can outright break my arm, but I can't even scratch it, Doc?” The bite marks were far from scratches, he had to be sure they were clean from dust before patching them up, blue marrow still staining the subject’s teeth. 

“Evaluate your aiming and shooting capabilities through the use of a broken limb was the literal objective of the experiment, there was no need for further unnecessary harm.” He checked his arms one more time, the healing would have to wait.

“Say it _to my face_ , Doc” he held a mischievous smile as he always did when playing with words, his face was covered in light bruises, a few of them were colored with his marrow where bone hit magically summoned bone with calculated strength.

“Those were necessary, you were hesitating to follow orders”

“I would follow them faster, if you didn't slapped me every single second!” Typical exaggeration.

“You know better than to use that kind of vocabulary.”

“I do, that's why I bite it silent” muttered as if it the sentence would not be heard by talking too fast, having no white noises in the lab, beside light scratches of pencil in paper, all words sounded perfectly clear, there was never a reason behind changing intonation, still the skeleton seemed to love using them when emotive.

“Using self harm is beneath you Sans, I will start doubting your decision making capabilities.”

“I was in pain, that was the only fucking thing I could do!”

*slap*

“Fucking hell”

*slap**slap*

“Hell is not” *slap*

“is not a swearing word”

“I do consider it as such”

He frowned “You're stupid” clearly letting anger take the best of him.

Gaster looked in his son's eye, unamused, a lie was useless as an insult, and both knew that Gaster was all but stupid, but still he insisted to be controlled by emotions.

“Stupid... d-dodo butt…”

Sans was half flinching half trembling, it looked like he was waiting for something to happen, Gaster was just bewildered, how could a 11 year old even think on something so childish? With the apparent absence of that something, he saw a glimpse of a look of victory in the younger face, how far was he willing to go to ruin what could be otherwise a successful day of training? Sans looked him in the eyes, with renewed courage.

“You're a stupid dodo butt!”

*slap*

Sans looked at him apprehensive but attentive, he could see a glimpse of curiosity mixed with the mischief and hurt hidden in the permanent smile. Same sentence, no punishment in the first, but punishment in the second, could be seen as an irrational act. Gaster was never irrational.

“You found a loophole, congratulations!” Gaster was tired, but intelligence should always be properly rewarded, even if his son decided to use it in such stupid situations “However if I let you without punishment you will explore it until it becomes annoying, therefore I will also punish it as bad behaviour” He regretted the his action as soon as he finished the sentence. By all means this was an error. Theoretically, changes like this could and should be included into their interactions, as a way to increase desired behaviors, but the punishment should be only applied once the rule was started out loud, not before... thankfully the younger didn't notice.

You are a terrible father”

Or was that asking too much?

“I agree” He saw Sans shoulders drop as his pinprics seemed to unfocus, then break eye contact, the fighting intent slowly seemed to fade, replaced with a look Gaster could only describe as ‘lost’. Gaster always viewed himself as an excellent scientist, his fatherhood... was not in his priorities. Agreeing felt right at the moment, maybe he should do it more, definitely felt better than admitting his mistake, a way of lessening his guilt was always welcomed, especially when working with his resentful subordinate.

“You don't deserve Paps” Now THAT was a low blow... He could see his eldest fuming with irrational fury, blazing blue eye and a look of pure hatred he could only muster when talking about his brother. As a scientist he was always amazed to see how love and LOVE were interchangeable and balanced in the younger soul. Sans didn't realize the antagonism of the situation, or simply didn't care, how he could became his worst-righteous-enraged-self when trying to protect his so called "better self", or how Papyrus would be disappointed in him if he ever knew his brother capable of such killing intent... poor kind soul... or maybe he would just forgive him... as always... no one in this world DID deserve Papyrus' blind mercy, hopefully he would outgrow it in time.

“Are you going to cry?” Taunted Gaster, if Sans was going to play dirty he had no reason to not do the same, especially if he was heading to irrationality, one of the few things Gasted hated.

“Ha!” Sans scowled “You wish!” the voice sounding victorious, as if he couldn't tell he already had little undropped tears in the corners of his sockets.

Gaster pondered for a brief moment if he would be petty about them, decided he wouldn't, it was beneath him, at least this time the younger managed to control himself. He was a practical monster that just wanted to get over with his job “If it would accelerate the recovery of this little tantrum of yours, yes I do wish so” He was starting to get a headache of all this unnecessary heartfelt conversation, massaging his temples in an attempt to lessen the pain.

Only silence followed, but Gaster knew better, he could tell Sans would push a few more buttons before stopping, it was always like this after a particularly painful experiment, the only reason Gaster indulged in the conversation was because the catarsis proved to improve Sans' mental health and lessened the necessary amount of time for recovery between the experiments.

“You are a monster” Obvious “devoid of compassion” Oh, this should be good “and hope, and love” certainly not LOVE “and all the other positive emotions that ever existed” Sans held a firm posture, the arms still chaining him into the table apparently forgotten as he looked Gaster in the eye, uttering words like a true scientist would speak of an absolute truth. It were moments like these that filled Gaster with prestige. Even in distress Sans could still disregard emotions and behave properly if he put his mind to it, if nothing he was proud.

“You are not the first to come to this conclusion” Being devoid of emotions was a common statement on his coworkers gossip, he would prefer the use of the word ‘rational’ however, but he would not correct the boy, not while he was successfully managing to disconnect himself from any emotion, good behaviour should always be rewarded “You may as well be right” He was proud of his capabilities, of refraining his emotions to make decisions, his whole life was about being racional and the logical choice, that was the central reason behind the experiments, and one of the his guilty pleasures was seeing his elder son following the same steps, even if he claimed to hate every minute of it.

“I bet that's why then” Said the boy still devoid of emotion but with an unusual undertone on his voice, making it deeper and slower than his natural way of speaking, his pinpricks disappearing in an obvious way. An amusing attempt to appear threatening, he suppose, but there is no much you can do to cause fear when you are forced by your very anatomy to hold an eternal smile. Maybe if attempted against a non skeleton monster it could be frightening... Or against someone that wasn't twice his height... Or a hundred times his age.

“If you don't value your sentence enough to finish it” The more he thought about the little skeleton trying to get under his metaphorical skin the more he had to suppress his will to smirk at how absurdly ridiculous that sounded “I will not value it enough to ask.”

“That's why mom left you.”

 

 

 

And to think five words would be enough reduce the Royal Scientist to a never ending pit of irrational fury, blazing eye and pure hatred.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So that was it, next will be the same scene, but Sans POV. Hope you like it.  
> Any corrections are welcomed. Leave a comment, is free!


	2. But Words...

It wasn’t a surprise when Gaster stopped healing his broken arm, Doc was not what he would call a kind monster, and with limited healing items there was not much that he could do without putting Sans in one of the healing pods of the lab.

He knew the old monster would run out of juice the moment he commanded him to sit in that chair, the moment he tied him, he knew that he would start the questions before healing him… Doc was a jerk.

Got his arms stuck on the table, tied by leather shackles, as if he was some kind of danger to himself. Just a reminder that he would no be able to either run or retaliate whatever the scientist decided to do to him

“And why did you injury your arm?” Asked as if he didn't have watched the whole scene unfold, as if he couldn't stop it whenever he wanted it.

“I was trying to focus” Blasters needed focus and control, a broken limb messed with the intricate flux of magic that ran through his body, unbalancing the strings of magic, unstabilizing constructs. Having magic passing through a broken arm made it almost impossible to keep a big enough magic flow to the very draining summon.

It took half an hour of the doctor ‘coaching’ for him to push energy through the bruised magic strings, crushing pain jolting at every beat of his soul, and still he only could gather enough for one shot

The pain helped, in a twisted, and kind of pathetic way, he knew were was coming from, he could control it, each time his teeth sink into his arm the pain came in waves, from the outside to the inside. Unlike the throbbing pulse on his other arm that threatened to burst the limb to dust from the inside out. Unlike the hands materializing everywhere hitting and shouting for not behaving properly. The bites were expected, previsible, familiar.

“This is a terrible coping method” He knew that, it was obvious! _painfully_ obvious, but what choice did he had? He couldn’t just stand there and take it.

“You can outright break my arm, but I can't even scratch it, Doc?” If hypocrisy could kill he would be _sans_ a Dad.

“Evaluate your aiming and shooting capabilities through the use of a broken limb was the literal objective of the experiment, there was no need for further unnecessary harm.” Doc gave one last check on the arms, like he actually cared.

‘No unnecessary harm’, that was hilarious! He couldn’t contain himself “Say it _to my face_ , Doc”.

The scientist kept the blank face, draining Sans of every drop of good humour “Those were necessary, you were hesitating to follow orders” Doc could at least had given him a glare, he already had a shitty day, no reaction is the worst reaction.

“I would follow them faster, if you didn't slapped me every single second!” He was tired of this, he could swear he had trained for five hours straight, but the clock insisted on cutting that time in half, he wanted this day to end, he wanted to go home.

“You know better than to use that kind of vocabulary.” Still unfazed, still writing on the gray notebooks, still wasting his time, still keeping him tied helpless on the experiment table, he wanted out, if he wanted out he needed to behave.

“I do, that's why I bite it silent” said quietly to himself, he had to calm down, he had to behave, he couldn’t let emotions take in, it always ended badly, calm down, he needed to remember why he was here, why he-/

“Using self harm is beneath you Sans” The scientist’s displeased voice broke his concentration “I will start doubting your decision making capabilities.” Why couldn’t he just leave him alone!

“I was in pain” still enraged him how his father would dismiss pain as any other emotion, and not the real threat that it was to his sanity “that was the only fucking thing I could do!”

A purple skeletal hand suddenly materialized, the hit surprised him enough for him to forget his arms still stuck to the table, jerking his body, putting too much pressure in the binds and poorly healed wounds, another wave of fresh pain shoot through his body, taking him out of guard.

“Fucking hell!”

Another slap for the curse and yet another, at least this time he controlled himself enough for the blows only jerk his head, in an annoying but supressable pain, he still kept enough of his mind to think about it... two hits this times, maybe it was…

“hell is not” Another hit interrupted the sentence, yes it was it, angrily he continued “is not a swearing word.”

“I do consider it as such” Gaster looked unamused, it was typical of him bend the rules just enough to fit his preferences

“You're stupid” It was a lie, he knew it, his father knew it, the whole monsterkind knew it... But somehow Sans was sure Gaster was just that! He was the stupidest genius that ever lived! Even if putting the words together made no sense, he just wanted to express how frustrated he was! But no fancy word would ever be enough to describe that. He was completely angry, to the hell with being hit “Stupid” To the hell with fancy words. To the hell to making sense! “d-dodo butt…”

He expected being hit for better words than those, but those were the ones who came from his agonizing frustration and slowly he realized, he haven't been hit, he dared look at his father.

Gaster was without words! Flabber _gasted_ , heh. His mouth slightly open, none of the summoned hands were writing and his own hand was freezed halfway to adjust his glasses and he had the most puzzled look Sans ever saw on the scientist face. He let himself bask on the feeling of making a fool out of the old doctor, Gaster sighed and compose himself, continuing the act of adjusting his glasses and trying to hide the small signs of annoyance that were starting to show. Sans was winning their little game, after today he needed at least a little victory, so he took advantage of Gaster's lack of response and repeated without stuttering.

“You're a stupid dodo butt!” The slap echoed in the room, Sans stood silent, he hadn't broken any rule and if his father considered those as curses as well, he would had hit him already, did he miss something? Breaking a rule was one thing, at least he could enjoy annoying his father, stars know he deserved all the annoyance Sans could throw. But being hit without knowing the motive? How did he failed his father's expectations now? Was he so stupid he couldn't even notice when he had made a mistake?

“You found a loophole, congratulations!” Praised monotonous while using his hand to massage his right temple. Sans hated it. He knew what the compliment meant, 'you outsmarted me' or 'I acknowledge your intellect', and he hated the fact that somehow listening to it made all the feeling of inadequacy go away, dulled the pain from the hits and even yet, made him want to behave properly... Gaster made him read several books about conditioning, and still, he was no better at resisting it than a dog.

“However if I let you without punishment you will explore it until it becomes annoying, therefore I will also punish it as bad behaviour” The scientist never let emotions show, or at least that what he bragged about. The young skeleton also read all the books about communication and had spent nearly all his few years of age observing the elder, he had got quite good at spotting small changes on his expression. And he could swear he could read shame written all over the emotionless face.

What was Wing Dings ashamed of? The hits? He knew better than to expect that, he had the right to hit his subject if he misbehaved. But that look on his face... looked like someone about to be caught... That was it, his superior had made a mistake somewhere, no wonder why he didn't understood where the hit came from. Sans waited for him to continue his speech, but Gaster spared himself of admitting his mistake, changing his expression to the usual neutral, as if nothing had happened.

Sans was disappointed. He had learned to understand his mentor's sense of justice, as twisted as it was, it made sense, he always had a reason, he always believed he was doing the right thing, he had no fear of taking the hard choices, even if he was going to pay the price in the end, he always told the hard truths. And now he was lying by omission, made him wonder what else had he lied about.

Sans hadn't intend to say it out loud, it was just a feeling made into faint words slipping through sealed teeth “You are a terrible father.”

“I agree” Realization hit him like no physical hit had, dad said he was a terrible father, that was the hard truth, the look on his face screamed 'undeniable truth', and yet not a single sign of shame.

He couldn't look anymore. It hurt, it just... hurt... why didn't he had at least a little bit of remorse? Didn't he care? Why he didn't care? He knew he didn't care, why was he still hoping he would? Why was he still hoping? He knew better... he had to know better by now... Dad does not care about nothing but his science, he just endure his sons...

Seeing how he had treated Papyrus lately had renewed his hope, no one that made his brother so happy could be that bad, his brother saw good in him, he had to have some good in him, his behaviour towards the younger couldn't be just the result of their agreement, he was terrible with emotions, he couldn't fake it so well... 

He heard the sound of writing again and hesitantly looked in the scientist direction, the noise came from one of the three pair of summoned hands, judging by the position, that particular grey block corresponded to Gaster’s personal notes. He was looking to a blank point in the wall with a hand in his chin, completely absent of the moment in front of him, writing in wonderment about some random subject he found interesting and had no relation with Sans health nor the present experiment.

So... Sans was sulking in his pain like kicked puppy, while the prick looked like he was pleased with himself...

He was a moron. A fool excuse of a monster! If he was not trapped he would claw his face off in humiliation. How did he still thought Doctor Gaster had any feelings towards his brother? Just because he was his innocent son? Sans was that once, how did that went again? Oh, yeah, not good... In fact, if he hadn't made that deal his brother would most likely be here with a broken arm instead of him... And his sweet brother was still going to believe that the Doc had some good in him. He would still comply, and try to please him, it wouldn't matter how cruel the Doc was, his kind brother would endure, and knowing Gaster, knowing how far he would take his subject's loyalty... it filled him with... hatred.

“You don't deserve Paps!” Growled feeling his usual cold blue magic boiling red hot in his soul, almost like an animalistic survival response, he bared the canines concealed in his permanent grin, clawing whatever he could grasp with his binded hands, his magical eye painting the table and the lab coat a strong shade of light blue. Seeing the still amused face his superior held in front of him, had him even more lost to rage, all composure renounced, he felt his face burn with excessive magic, at loss of breath he forgot he didn't need, static thundered in his ribcage.

The next words brought him back in the blink of an eye “Are you going to cry?” A mocking smile, steepling his fingers above the table, and eye focused on him flashing a rusty yellow. Gaster always despised the display of emotions, judging whoever let themself be controlled by them as an inferior and not worth his time. Sans would not give him that victory.

“Ha! You wish!” Successfully avoiding the complete break down he forced himself to a ritm of deep slow breaths to calm the pulse of his soul and withdraw the flare of his magic. He couldn't be controlled by his emotions, he had to play on the same level as his superior, and he could only do that if he was completely focused and rational.

“If it would accelerate the recovery of this little tantrum of yours, yes I do wish so” Ignoring his taunting words, Sans chanted to himself ‘There is nothing to be ashamed about’, ‘Deep breaths’, ‘Don't let him get into your head’, ‘Focus’.

He needed to think, he couldn’t think if he was so angry, ‘anger gets you dumb’ his father had taught him, and if he wanted to have any gratification before the next experiment he would have to listen to the advice.

“You are a monster” he talked slowly, focusing on the firmness of the words, looking the taller one in the eye “devoid of compassion” the timing gave him chance to think on the next thing “and hope, and love and all the other positive emotions that ever existed” exaggeration, maybe, but truth nevertheless, this was the exact feeling the scientist passed to anyone that interacted with him

“You are not the first to come to this conclusion” Unsurprisingly “You may as well be right” he looked flattered. No! That wouldn’t do it at all!

Sans wanted him to hurt, the same hurt and shame he was feeling right now, the same pain of being denied by someone that was supposed to be your family and… and… an idea started to form.

Family…

It was important, right? Gaster sucked at it and even **him** teached the brothers how much family was indeed important…

But the brothers were not important to him.

As hurtful as it was to admit. He didn’t care about his sons, so who else? He had no family, all other skeletons died during the war, centuries ago… but… he and Papyrus were only a few years old, it made no sense, they needed to have a mother.

The doctor had lied to him, he had told him that he was the only parent, that the incubator powered up by the core had done the rest of the job, and that he should never spoke of that again. Having seen his brother being born in a tube made Sans believed it at the time...

“I bet that's why then” But studying souls for so long made him realize that even if only for a brief period, even if just for the time of merging souls, he had had another parent. More important, and that **still** scandalise him, Wing Dings Gaster had had a bondmate!

“If you don't value your sentence enough to finish it” At some point of his life he had someone he cared, someone he shared feelings with, someone he wanted to build a real family with… But it never happened, somehow the brothers ended up with only their father, somehow he had to build a machine just to incubate his soulings, no other skeleton around since the war. ‘Never again speak of this’ he cared enough to lie, they had a mother, she died long time ago and that may be what broke his father... and so, to respect her memory and his wishes, he never spoke of it... “I will not value it enough to ask”.

But valued it he did. He had seen his father sneaking into the dark room at the basement talking to ‘someone’, only the blasters to understand the drunken words. He had listened when a few veterans came to talk to Gaster about a memorial ‘in her honor’, and being vigorously thrown out of the lab. And just this month he had eavesdropped a very eye opening conversation ‘If I knew she had soulings, I would never let her join battle, old friend… no matter her duty to monsterkind, leaving family behind was a foolish choice’.

Foolish, the deep pesarous voice had said, unloving was what he heard... she had left not only Gaster, but he and his little brother as well, if she was here things could be so different… but she bailed on her family, so her memory was not worthy of being respected any more than his dad’s feelings.

“That's why mom left you”

For a second he won, his father’s ‘absent’ emotions were displayed, bared in both magic and matter. A rush of them stampeding just milliseconds apart.

Surprise, hurt, disbelief

Anger, rage, wrath

L O V E

His magic answered, blue and yellow eye shooting open in defense

Blackness swallowed the room, a deafening static noise screeched “Never”, his magic eye was easily overpowered by the rusty yellow one, soon it became the only discernible light in the black void-like room, hands on his neck, far too many hands, he couldn’t move his head, body paralyzed.

His soul dimmed, the killing intent drowning any attempt of movement, any chance of reaction dying on the null atmosphere, was that how a monster with high LV really looked like?

The terrifying voice didn’t make sense anymore, every twist of intonation jolt a cold shiver down his spine, that or the hands finally had cut the magic flow to his body. He felt a crunching sound pound in his skull, his neck couldn’t contain anymore pression than this. 

‘Doc’ he tried to plead, ‘you’re gonna kill me...’ Sans knew dad didn’t want that… not killing… not family... his eye went out, no words left his mouth, vision blurring, mind fuzzy.

He was going to die… at least his brother would be safe… he got in and out of conscience multiple times and at some point must have started to hallucinate, the warmth, a hug, someone apologising in wingdings, weird, no one else could speak it, didn’t sound like dad.

Dust couldn’t hallucinate, right?

It was fine then… right?

Everything was fine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, that was it... and no, I don't think being almost killed by your dad is fine, no matter what you do to taunt him, but you gotta believe what you gotta believe, sometimes if you dont lie to yourself you dont make it out alive.  
> I hope you've enjoyed it, writting it was a good challenge, maybe I post something else, I'm not sure yet.  
> Take care of yourselves, and keep on living.


End file.
